I was thinking about the various technologies that were heavily discussed in the forum over the last few years - forum members were concerned that they wouldn't catch on. Here's a few that I thought of:

DVD's. Members thought they might not catch on with the general public.

DTS. Ok...that one only sort of made it.

Widescreen tv's. It's taken a while, but they've finally become mainstream.

The first time I saw DVD in action (1999), I didn't think it was such a big deal. Of course, it was demoed on what had to be the smallest TV known to man, but still, I didn't really get hooked on it till 2001.

*Selectable multiple viewing angles. The DVD feature that promised to turn every movie watcher into an armchair director. To my knowledge only a handful of adult titles have even bothered with this feature.

*Widescreen became standard. There are still a limited few fullscreen only releases, but there are more widescreen-only releases.

"Did you know that more people are murdered at 92 degrees Fahrenheit than any other temperature? I read an article once. Lower temperatures, people are easy-going, over 92 and it's too hot to move, but just 92, people get irritable."

I just remember all the "but DVD won't catch on because it can't record, man" arguments - like everyone who wanted a VCR didn't already own one or the store would make you trade in your VCR before they sold you a DVD player. You know, the way cassette decks were all confiscated when playback-only CDs were introduced. I especially loved that fact that this usually came from laserdisc owners who attributed that format's failure to catch on to the stupidity of "Joe Sixpack", the phases of the moon and pretty much everything except its inability to record.

You know, when "Bobby Sox" (Vivid, an adult title) came out, it was the first to use multi-angle. And there were tons of people in this forum - and several dealers who didn't normally keep loads of porn (Ken Cranes, as an example, in their online store) who sold tons of it just so people could see the multi-angle. Actually, lots of people thought you'd do directors cuts this way, with different framing of the same scene, etc.. never happened.

Here's a few others that were debated:

* "Which-way-book type DVDs" Type DVD "movie/games" there was thought that DVD-Branching would provide movies a chance for the participant to choose which direction the action would go "does the actor decide to do X or Y?" And then live the outcome. To my knowledge, only two DVDs ever shipped that way.

* Big debates over combo DVD/LD players.. Pioneer had several.. but none were as good as the CLD-99, or CLD-97 for some

* Would DTS kill the DVD format by squishing bitrates? It was -pure- on laserdiscs..

* CAV LDs: Would they stay the collector's favorite as truest to the medium?

* Speaker wire: is it all a big scam? (man, were there debates about this one.. FIERCE debates)

* universal remotes.. who the hell can program a pronto!?! (now: I can't imagine life without my Harmony

* ISF calibration wars: who was doing the best job flying in the "BEST" ISF tech to their house to calibrate their projector or TV? And who had pics, damnit!

DIVX was a pay per view dvd format (the forum members did not want it to catch on) from the fightdivx website: DIVX as of 6/16/99 calls it QUITS! Circuit City finally ends their DIVX scam after over a year of stupid commercials and trying to brainwash the public that their pay per view DVD was better than Open-DVD. The DIVX vs. DVD war is just starting to heat up. Circuit City's dishonest approach of selling DIVX as a feature of DVD, and not as a competing format, may get them a few quick sales now, but it will backfire on them later. They have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into this new format and will do anything to sell it to you. Our mission is to give you the information you need to help you understand what DIVX really is, and give you the tools to help FIGHT DIVX.

I was shocked on how fast LaserDiscs stopped being made considering they were around for over 25 years. Even LPs didn't completely go away. DVD players going from nearly $1000 for my 1st Sony to now where they give them away in Boxes of Fruit Loops.

I started building my system when I was remodeling my house about 9 years ago. I had to get an owner of a Stereo Store to special order many of the items which Any chain store sells, and finding onfo out was like inventing new technologies. today

As funny as that is, DVD's went from being "Elite" pieces of modern day technology, to "Novelty items" that were packaged (Free) with cereal boxes (i.e. the TV show DVD's that accompanied select General Mills cereals).

Yeah, but more recently they've been giving DVDs away with magazines. I got the firsr episode of House in a copy of TV Guide a week or two before the show's debut. And I think Entertainment Weekly gave away a Desperate Housewives disc at some point.

I was looking through old, archived HTF to see if there were other threads that should bear a mention that we haven't discussed in a while, and technologies that we had fights over:

* why LPs sound more "pure" and "real" then CDs.

* The move from Delphi to a web forum: would it change the dynamic of the group significantly? There were more then a few people very unhappy with the idea of expanding HTF, as it was very "cliquish" (if that's a word) on Delphi.

* Monoblock Amplifiers.. big threads on them..

* Here's one: SVHS decks; who had the best one?

* AC3 over DirectTV? Who had the new recievers that would support it? How bad does it damage the picture?

Ah yes, at the time everyone was looking for THE "reference" DVD with respect to picture and sound. I have to admit, The Fifth Element was really the first DVD to blow me away as far as picture quality. I remember Contact more as the first DVD that sparked debates about DVD-rot.

Back on topic, I honestly didn't think snapper-style DVD cases would last.